[berettafan]

Don't know what prevailing opinions are regarding slots in the balmur area but this is an interesting bit just the same.

WARNING- This is an opinion piece (from a small local paper).


Yanking the carpet from under the horses
January 6, 2009

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Buzz up! Think back to the years of the Ehrlich administration's drive for slots. Think of the sob stories you heard about horseracing in Maryland -- how racetracks were once the home to a scruffy, spirited racing scene, and purses were more than enough to get by on, and how slots were needed soon to keep one of Maryland's most storied pastimes alive. Think back to how horsemen lobbied the legislature to let the owners of the tracks they raced in install slot machines, so those owners could help keep horseracing alive.


Was it all a mirage? You'd be forgiven for thinking so in these first days of 2009, as Ocean Downs owner William Rickman makes it clear that he'd like to count receipts from slot machines without having to sniff the stinky stables of a working racetrack while he does it.

The racetrack, playing tough in negotiations with the horsemen's association over the terms of the 2009 racing season, dropped an ultimatum last week: Stabling at Ocean Downs will end this year. The backstretch will close. After 2009, Ocean Downs won't be a place to keep horses; at best, from a racer's perspective, it will be a place to drive up to, race for the day, and then leave.

Manager William Fasy says the backstretch can't coexist with the slot machines Ocean Downs intends to get a license for. Rents are $100 per month per horse; it's not clear if raising the rents would be acceptable to either party, but we wonder if Ocean Downs even tried. When horsemen protested this last-minute addition to the contract and withdrew their permission for simulcasting other races at the track, Ocean Downs turned into a bunker -- everything closed, even the restaurant. A photographer for this paper who'd arranged to meet horsemen there was turned away by security guards on Friday. That's some tourism magnet Worcester County's got on its hands, huh?

The track is private property, but it's been the recipient of a good deal of public goodwill and taxpayer indulgence in recent years. Its owner appears not to care. That's unfortunate both for horsemen and county residents.